Setting: Specialized institutions for the treatment of lung diseases in Zagreb, Croatia.
Objective: To assess the risk of TB disease among medical nurses.
Design: Retrospective cohort analysis.
Results: It was found that the incidence rate was 6 to 17 times greater among medical nurses employed in institutions in which there was regular exposure to patients with TB. The tuberculosis incidence rate in Croatia among all women aged 20-49 was 48 per 100,000 in 1987. The cumulative incidence was 5 to 12 times greater among nurses of this age range working at high-exposure institutions; relative tuberculosis morbidity risk for medical nurses, if employed in the chest services studied, was up to 17 times higher (95% CI 5.3-58.0).
Conclusion: The results of the study showed that tuberculosis morbidity risk among medical nurses employed in specialized institutions for lung disease treatment in Zagreb, expressed by relative risk for age group 20-49, was up to 17 times higher than among medical nurses in the control institutions.